Sunday, September 28, 2014

Argument: In Richard Rodriguez Aria, he talks about his
experience in the classroom as a young boy and his thoughts on a bilingual
education. At the beginning of his piece I felt that he was looking for a
common ground to be accepted. The argument that Rodriguez is trying to make is
that people need to find their public identity and that fits into the rules and
codes of power but to not lose sight of who you really are.

A moment in the story that truly showed Rodriguez’s argument
about public and personal identity was the moment in the article when the nuns
from Rodriguez’s school visited his house. It was as if they were crossing the
boundary of his public identity into his personal identity. Rodriguez enjoyed
being able to speak Spanish at home it was comforting for him after spending
the day at school with his public identity. The nuns took that piece of his
personal identity away when they told his parents to speak English with them at
home. This could be seen as good and bad. It was good because Rodriguez did
need to learn English to be able to thrive and succeed in school, but at the
same time he also needed to keep his identity and who he really was. Speaking
Spanish was a part of who he was and sadly that piece of his became lost when
the nuns came to his house. In conclusion I feel that I feel that Rodriguez
felt he lost some of his personal identity but in return it made him more successful
in his professional identity. For my link this week I decided to include a PBSpage that has a biography on Rodriguez as well as links of interviews he has
done.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

In Peggy
McIntosh’s paper “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” she talks
about the overlooked privilege of whites, as well as the power men have over
woman and their inability to accept it. She really went into detail on the
privileges she noticed on a day-to-day basis and compiled them into a list. As
I went through it I felt that it really had relations to Delpit’s writings on
women’s rights and the codes of power.

Peggy McIntosh

In her
opening page she says, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless
knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes,
tools and blank checks.” (1)To me this correlates with Delpits piece and how
she talks about the codes and conducts of power. And how for white people they
are given an unearned “power” that they overlook. In my opinion I interpreted
McIntosh’s and Delpit’s readings as that people who are outside the “culture of
power are not granted that knapsack of tools and could go unguided with no
knowledge of this culture of power. This means that these people are at a
disadvantage their entire lives.

In
addition to Delpit’s reading, I found the piece to mesh well with Kozol’s piece
from Amazing Grace, how he talks
about the hospitals of Mott Heaven. And how she states in her list, “I can be
sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me.”(3)
This to me represents that the hospital she goes to is in a suburb with mostly
people of her race. And she will never have to worry about having to change
bloody sheets before she seats herself like the people mentioned in Kozol’s
piece. These are all examples of things that I believe back up and support
McIntosh’s belief of unknowingly having privilege and a responsibility everyone
has to realize it.

I decided to include a video of Peggy McIntosh giving a speech on the TED x youtube channel. She discusses how realizing power and privilege can strengthen our compassion:

Sunday, September 14, 2014

This weeks reading focused on
writer Jonathan Kozol’svisit to a
poverty stricken neighborhood called Mott Haven. The neighborhood is filled
with violence, drugs, and various other issues. Kozol creates a clear image of
life for the people of Mott Haven, showing their daily of living in poverty.

While reading Amazing Grace, I found that there were a few quotes that really
stood out to me for different reasons. The first quote that caught my eye was
when Kozol is speaking to Cliffie’s mother and she asks him if Cliffie had
taken him to Jackson Avenue. When Kozol replies yes, Cliffie’s mother somewhat
nonchalantly says “’You see a lot of prostitutes down there as well…’”(11). For
me, the way Cliffie’s mother is so used to Cliffie walking down these streets
filled with prostitues and drug users was shocking.

St. Ann's Church in Mott Haven

Growing up, my mother was
very strict about which streets I traveled along, I was always told to avoid
any streets that she deemed unsafe. Having grown up in a fairly decent neighborhood,
I’m sure whatever was on the streets my mother told me to stay off of where no
where near as bad as some of the things found in Mott Haven. It was sad to see
how used to seeing her son on these dangerous streets Cliffie’s mother was.
Those are conditions that a child should not have to be exposed to at such a
young age.

The
other quote that really stood out to me was a series of lines also from
Cliffie’s mother. When Kozol asks about the incinerator that Cliffie pointed
out on their walk she says "’The
point is that they put a lot of things into our neighborhood that no one
wants…the waste incinerator is just one more lovely way of showing their affection…the truth is, you get
used to the offense. There's trashy things all over.’”(10). This quote stood out to
me because it’s crazy to think that this woman feels that the city that she
calls her home is basically being used as a giant dumping ground for the rest
of the cities. It’s horrible for the struggling citizens of Mott Haven to think
that the surrounding towns have no interest in helping them better themselves
but instead would rather just see the town in its current state and decide that
there is no way to improve it so it might as well be used as dumping grounds.
It was really sad to see how somewhat defeated and accepting Cliffie’s mother
was about Mott Haven. Overall, I enjoyed the reading this week. It was very
eye-opening.

If you were wondering what Mott Haven's been like recently take a look at their local paper's website and seeing all their latest news: Mott Haven Herald

Hey, my name’s Mike. I am twenty years old and am in my
third year here at RIC. When I first entered RIC I was originally a biology
major. However, I soon realized that biology was not really what I was
interested in doing for the rest of my life. Since the age of 13 I have enjoyed
playing the guitar, and had often given lessons as a way to earn extra money.
This led me to the decision to change my major to music education. But over the
summer I had a change of heart and decided that the major I truly wanted was
elementary education. Of course, like most everyone, I am taking this course
because it is required for my major, but I have also heard many good things
about FNED as well. Over the summer I relaxed mostly, seeing as my job is only
during the school year. I also vacationed in New Hampshire for a week with some
family and my girlfriend. Overall it was a great summer, but I am excited to be back
at school and pursing my major!